Identification Help?

[kittysfish]

Hello all ~

My uncle recently unexpectedly died, and left a small collection of vintage furs behind. In order for family to receive them, they have to be identified, & I'm trying to help the executor with that via pictures & internet research. There are multiple coats and other articles that have been harder to identify with certainty, and the owner of Poppy's Vintage Clothing recommended I post questions here when I sent her a question. (I had already read through many of VFG's fur identification resource pages, and they were a great help in getting me started figuring multiple items out .) As requested in the posting guidelines, I'll try to just ask one question at a time (but there will likely be multiple posts ).

I'll start with one of the larger pieces. This is a Polo Norte coat, and with the striping we considered otter, but the pale patches looked too large in proportion to the dark lines; so beaver or nutria/muskrat were also considerations due to coloring & fur depth, but beyond that I didn't know what it might be (unless dyed?). I unfortunately live across the US from the executor, so have not been able to handle the pieces myself (which would have made this easier :( ), & am relying on pictures & questions I can ask.

Looking forward to your thoughts!
Thank you for your help
Hollie

 

[The Vintage Vendeuse]

Welcome! You may want to edit your title to include the word fur so the most knowledgeable eyes check out your thread.
@furwise

 

[kittysfish]

Thank you! I may need to check this on the desktop site later, but on the mobile site I can't find an edit option for my post anywhere, otherwise I would gladly change the title :(

 

[furwise]

Hi there,

Pretty. The fur type is rabbit and was color enhanced or dyed. I'm not sure if it's quite vintage yet based on the labels shown.

 

[kittysfish]

Thank you! Because visually it had mimicked the color of beaver, otter, etc, I hadn't even considered rabbit. :( (This is where it would sure help if I were there and could run my hands across these furs.)
Would you share some of the visual cues that clued you in to the type of fur?

 

[kittysfish]

P.S. thank you for the clear and decisive help! That solved what had already taken many hours of searching with unsatisfying & inconclusive results.

 

[furwise]

You are most welcome. Sometimes it's tough to tell from pics, but some indicators can include the appearance of the sheen, shine, or lack of, the density, the coloration, and the size and shape of the pelts.
Then you can also find out information about the maker, designer, or furrier that can help too. In this case, the furrier was one who was notorious for creating rabbit fur coats and dying them to look like other fur types.
Here's a page of a newspaper article that mentioned Polo Norte Furs. The photos to the right are unassociated. I do think yours is more modern.

 

[kittysfish]

That is just terrific! I appreciate the additional news clipping confirmation. (Dyeing helped explain why the dark brown stripes looked a little more lurid than entirely natural for something beaver, otter, etc, from things I had tried to look up.)